


Winter Recess

by fairyqueenmab



Category: Romeo And Juliet - All Media Types, Romeo And Juliet - Shakespeare
Genre: Fluff, Kid Fic, Other, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-02
Updated: 2015-01-02
Packaged: 2018-03-05 00:02:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3097475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairyqueenmab/pseuds/fairyqueenmab
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kindergarten AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	Winter Recess

**Author's Note:**

> Late Christmas present for superenjolras

Mercutio and Tybalt stared straight ahead, hands barely touching. Their teacher walked up and down the line behind them, checking that everyone was standing with their buddy before they went outside.

"Alright, kids, everyone ready? Let's go." She led them out the door, the classroom volunteer following at the back of the line to keep an eye on everyone. They passed the music rooms and Mercutio peered in at his brother who was playing on the xylophones. He waved, but Valentine didn't see him. They reached the playground and the kids at the front of the line began peeling away from each other, shrieking loudly as they ran. When they got to the front, Mercutio and Tybalt pulled their hands apart and ran in opposite directions. Mercutio jumped into one of the swings, almost slipping out onto the woodchips below. He stretched out his hand to grab the swing next to him, nearly falling off in the process. Livia glared at him, hands on her hips.

"You're not allowed to save swings," she told him, ferocious glare somewhat ruined by her ladybug hat pulled down over her curly hair. Mercutio said a word he'd heard his mom say the day before. He knew it was bad because right after she said it she'd looked at him and Valentine in horror to see if they'd noticed. Livia scowled.

"Keep your stupid swing. It's a dumb swing so dumb boys should play on it." She stormed off to where a few other kids had gathered around Helena, who'd announced during snack time that she would eat a dead bug they'd found on the classroom radiator. Mercutio stuck his tongue out at her retreating back, turning eagerly when he heard Romeo call his name. 

His wide smile vanished at the sight of a large winter coat bobbing along behind Romeo. He wasn't sure of the details, no one would specify for Romeo, so he couldn't get any information for Mercutio, but Romeo's cousin was living with him for some reason now. And not just temporarily. All his stuff was there, clothing, toys, even books. He was going to their school too and Mercutio hated it because he and Romeo were supposed to be line buddies, but the second this cousin had arrived, he had gotten paired with Romeo and Mercutio had been shoved over with Tybalt. 

Romeo reached the swingset and grinned widely at Mercutio. His cousin arrived after stopping to tie his shoelaces, face barely visible beneath the large blue hood he wore.

"I only saved one swing," Mercutio said harshly, holding it out to Romeo. His mom had told him to be nice to Rmeo's cousin, but it was hard when he couldn't come over anymore because they were still getting adjusted and he couldn't invite Romeo over to _his ___house because then the cousin would want to come along too.

"What about Benvolio?" Romeo asked, nervously tugging at the pom-poms on the end of his scarf. 

"He can go find othe people to play with. I saved a swing for you, not him." Mercutio could feel the mean words coming out of his mouth, but couldn't stop them quickly enough. This kept happening to him. He'd make a friend and he'd _say _something and then they'd hate him. But for some reason, Romeo still wanted to be his friend. Instead of leaving, he'd just laugh and say something just as mean, but in a way that made it obvious he was only joking, and then it'd all be forgotten.__

"But he's our friend," Romeo said quickly, looking at the short boy beside him. Benvolio didn't say a word, just tightened his arms around his torso. 

"Not mine," Mercutio snapped, blinking back the tears he could feel forming. He jumped off the swing and ran over to the slides. He hated Benvolio, hated how he was taking Romeo away, hated how he was just appeared out of nowhere and taken his place. 

"Are you crying?" asked a nearby voice. Mercutio looked up and wiped his eyes. Tybalt stood by the monkeybards, Petruchio and a couple other boys next to him.

"No," Mercutio said, even though his eyes were read and puffy and he was still taking tiny hiccuping breaths. Tybalt laughed. 

"You are, you're a great big baby!" 

Mercutio reached down, and grabbed a handful of snow, breathing heavily as he whipped it at Tybalt's head. He missed, unable to aim properly through the blurriness caused by his tears. It hit Tybalt's shoulder and all the boys stared at Tybalt, waiting for him to do something. The silence lasted for a few seconds more and then Tybalt was launching snowballs back at him. One hit Mercutio's chin, pieces sliding down into his jacket and melting against his skin as he retaliated. A hand grabbed his arm and suddenly their teacher was pulling him back, her assistant standing between them and Tybalt. 

"Go sit on the time-out bench," she said firmly." I'm very disappointed in both of you. No snowball fights allowed, we've talked about this." She led them to the bench and wiped snow off of it before sitting them down. "Stay here until recess is over. I'll be sending notes home to your parents and legal guardians." Tybalt glared at the ground. She nodded before turning around to check on the steadily growng crowd by Helena, who had eaten the bug and was now hunting through the bushes for another chance for fame. 

The assistant stayed nearby, eyes glued to her phone. Mercutio stared wistfully across the playground to where Benvolio and Romeo were watching him. The turned to each other for a minute, then Benvolio walked to the bench, scarf flapping in the wind. He stopped in front of the assistant and looked up at her. 

"I said a bad word." She looked down at him, frowning. 

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" 

"I said a bad word, you have to put me in timeout. It's the rules." The assistant looked confused, glancing up at the teacher for help, but she was too far away to see what was happening. 

"Okay, um, take a seat and stay there until the end of recess." Benvolio sat down between Mercutio and Tybalt. He pulled his hood down and turned to look at Mercutio. 

"Romeo says he can't sit here too because he's really close to getting a gold star for the week and then his mom will let him stay up late," he said, looking Mercutio directly in the eyes. This was the most he'd ever heard Benvolio say. 

"What do you want?" Mercutio asked, kicking at the snow. 

"You shouldn't fight." Tybalt and Mercutio stared at him incredulously. "My mom ad dad used to fight all the time. It doesn't make you happy. It just makes bad things happen." 

"What did they fight about?" This was Tybalt. He looked down at his red gloves when they looked over at him. 

"Money, most of the time." 

"Mine fought about my mom's boyfriend," Tybalt said quietly. He glared at them. "And you can never tell anyone or else." 

There was an uncomfortable silence, and then Benvolio reached over to hold his hand. "My mom's in jail," he mumbled. He looked up. "We're even, see? Now you don't have to worry about me telling because you know that. But I wouldn't have said anyway." Mercutio looked at them. 

"Do I have to say anything?" he asked nervously. Benvolio shook his head. 

"Not for me. You're Romeo's best friend, you wouldn't tell." Mercutio looked away, breathing getting shaky again as he tried not to cry. He felt Benvolio's hand on his and looked down. He didn't move for a moment, feeling guilty for all the times he'd been rude and awful for Benvolio. 

"I'm sorry," he whispered. Benvolio squeezed his hand. 

"It's okay." 

**Author's Note:**

> i'll probably write more in this au it was a lot of fun
> 
> Come check out my Tumblr at translaertes.tumblr.com


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